After Zayn Malik, one of the members of the English-Irish boy band One Direction, left the band yesterday, CBS aired a montage of fans posting vines weeping about Malik’s departure. But as Mashable’s Tricia Gilbride pointed out, one of the vines was a fake.

Ben Berst, a self-described “comedian, entertainer, and YouTuber,” posted a vine of himself kissing a photograph of Malik and pretending to mourn the end of One Direction as we know it. CBS included it as part of a story about how fans across the world are posting vines bemoaning the loss of Malik, prompting Berst to post the CBS clip on YouTube, flag it on Reddit, and write, “I made a video pretending to care about One Direction. CBS aired it.”

The Reddit post generated more than 2,500 comments and the attention of Gilbride, who wrote, “Where are your fact checkers, CBS News?” But if you’d like to see the clip for yourself, you’re out of luck. Read more

On Monday, Reddit announced the unveiling of a new feature that could make life for BuzzFeed and Gawker a little more awkward: embeddable comment threads. From now on, if media outlets want to use content from Reddit, they can embed comments from the site’s users directly in their stories, just as they have been able to do with Tweets.

As Reddit administrators noted in the comment thread following the announcement, this feature could do more than advance the Reddit brand. For years, Reddit users have accused Gawker and BuzzFeed editors of searching Reddit for interesting content, scooping it up, repackaging it, and publishing it without attributing either Reddit or the users who originally posted the content. The new embed feature won’t exactly keep websites from swiping content, but it will make their editors slightly more queasy about swiping content when a simple mouse click will allow them to post Reddit’s work directly onto their own site. Read more

In an interview with The New York Times Monday, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly warned reporter Emily Steel there could be consequences for inappropriate coverage surrounding disputed claims about his reportage of the Falklands War. “I am coming after you with everything I have,” Mr. O’Reilly said. “You can take it as a threat.” (The New York Times) | Politico's Dylan Byers followed up with Steel, who told him "the story speaks for itself." (Politico) | Here's Steel's tweet. (@emilysteel) | O'Reilly continued defending his coverage Monday and sought to end the controversy. (CNN Money) | Meanwhile, the author of a New York Times story that O'Reilly cited in his defense said the anchor "cut out an important phrase" while reading it on air.

World Health Organization spokesperson Laura Bellinger mistakenly CC'd BuzzFeed reporter Tasneem Nashrulla on an email saying "My understanding is that BuzzFeed is banned." Tarik Jasarevic, another WHO staffer weighed in on another email -- Nashrulla was still CC'd -- saying only BuzzFeed reporter Jina Moore, who is covering Ebola in West Africa, was blacklisted. Jasarevic has not replied to a request from Poynter for elaboration on the thinking behind such an extraordinary (and petty) step. (Mashable) | In August, Jasarevic listed among his duties "being available to report to national and international media about the situation," but he was talking to someone who worked for Bono, not Jonah Peretti.

Jian Ghomeshi leaves CBC under dramatic circumstances: The broadcaster fired the host, whose show “Q” has gained a foothold below the 49th parallel as well, citing “information” it had received about him. (CBC) | “Over the past few months the Star has approached Ghomeshi with allegations from three young women, all about 20 years his junior, who say he was physically violent to them without their consent during sexual encounters or in the lead-up to sexual encounters.” (Toronto Star) | Ghomeshi acknowledges his “tastes in the bedroom may not be palatable to some folks” and says an ex-girlfriend launched a “campaign of harassment, vengeance and demonization against me” and that one person “began colluding with a freelance writer who was known not to be a fan of mine and, together, they set out to try to find corroborators to build a case to defame me.” (Jian Ghomeshi’s Facebook) | Canadaland’s Jesse Brown says he’s been working with the Toronto Star investigating Ghomeshi.

Read more]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/277117/toronto-star-investigated-sex-allegations-against-jian-ghomeshi/feed/0Reddit’s press guidelines: Get permission from Redditors before using their content in a listhttp://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/263067/reddits-press-guidelines-get-permission-from-redditors-before-using-their-content-in-a-list/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/263067/reddits-press-guidelines-get-permission-from-redditors-before-using-their-content-in-a-list/#commentsWed, 13 Aug 2014 15:06:34 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=263067Reddit

New press guidelines from Reddit — which it’s calling “Pressiquette,” a portmanteau I’ll be avoiding for the rest of this post — explain how the site is different from other social networking platforms when it comes to both sourcing content and sharing it.

If you see an interesting story or photo on reddit, message the redditor who shared the piece to ask for their permission prior to using it in an article or list, ask how they would like it to be attributed, and provide them a deadline before you move on to another story.

The problem with making a graphic about diversity in top newsroom positions over the years: “there isn’t really any racial diversity at all,” Manjula Martin writes. “Any way you click it, of the 183 top editors of mainstream English-language media outlets [Vijith] Assar counted here, one is a black man. Nine are white women (and two of them are Tina Brown).” (Scratch)

Digital subscriptions up 33 percent at FT: Total circulation (677,000 across platforms) is up 13 percent over the first half of last year, FT parent Pearson reports in its half-year results. Mobile “now generates almost 50% of total traffic and 20% of new digital subscriptions,” and mobile ad revenue was up 9 percent.

Read more]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/260266/worlds-least-surprising-chart-shows-lack-of-diversity-in-top-newsroom-jobs/feed/0Survey: Readers feel deceived by branded contenthttp://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/258330/survey-readers-feel-deceived-by-branded-content/
http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/258330/survey-readers-feel-deceived-by-branded-content/#commentsThu, 10 Jul 2014 13:39:42 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=258330Here’s our roundup of the top digital and social media stories you should know about (and from Andrew Beaujon, 10 media stories to start your day, and from Kristen Hare, a world roundup):

— At Nieman Lab, Alberto Cairo takes data journalism sites Vox and FiveThirtyEight to task for “worrying cracks that may undermine their own core principles.”

— Two-thirds of respondents to a survey by Contently “said they felt deceived when they realized an article or video was sponsored by a brand,” Erin Griffithwrites at Fortune. And most readers don’t even understand what “sponsored content” means.

Editor fired for gaming Reddit: Rod “Slasher” Breslau was fired from CBS Interactive’s esports site OnGamers after he was “caught asking other users to post his stories to Reddit with specific headlines,” Patrick Howell O’Neill reports. Reddit has banned OnGamers as a result, resulting in a loss of half its traffic. (The Daily Dot) || Related: How to get your news site banned from Reddit (Poynter)

These media companies drug-test their employees: The Washington Post, The New York Times and McClatchy all want you to fill a cup. (Gawker)

Voice of America journalists don’t want to be mouthpieces: Their union endorsed a change to the organization’s charter that would require VOA to “actively support American policy,” Ron Nixon reports.

Read more]]>http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/257700/editor-fired-for-reddit-shenanigans-buzzfeed-editors-dont-shout/feed/2How to get your news site banned from Reddithttp://www.poynter.org/news/media-innovation/249341/how-to-get-your-news-site-banned-from-reddit/
http://www.poynter.org/news/media-innovation/249341/how-to-get-your-news-site-banned-from-reddit/#commentsFri, 25 Apr 2014 12:00:31 +0000http://www.poynter.org/?p=249341I’ve called Facebook a capricious despot when it comes to how its mystery algorithm dishes out prime News Feed real estate. Figuring out how it favors certain types of content over others can have a major positive impact on your site’s traffic. For better or worse, news organizations are dependent on Facebook for an ever larger share of visitors.

But Reddit might be even more confusing to news organizations. It’s a place where successful posts can expose your content to an international audience of millions and lead to big traffic spikes — but also where human moderators can cut you off for bad behavior or suddenly decide your domain is no longer a good fit for the site’s primary news section.